OHI 2021: Summary of results

This document describes results from the 2021 global OHI assessment. This is mostly an internal document to explore and check results. It also creates the figures used on the website and in other documents.

Primary dataset

These data are the OHI scores for the eez regions of 220 countries and territories from 2012 to 2021.

Region 0 is the global average scores, which are calculated using an area-weighted average of the region scores (status, likely future state, and score).

OHI scores

Global summary

This section describes global patterns in index and goal scores. The overall global score was 70.22.

Alternative color scale

Average global performance of the 10 goals.

Flower plots for each region can be downloaded from here

Country summary

Country index scores for 2021. Maps describing goal and index scores can be downloaded from here.

Distribution of country index scores. The median index score among countries was 69.42.

The regions with index scores of 80 or greater are:

region_name	Index
Macquarie Island	93.99
Howland Island and Baker Island	89.89
Ile Europa	85.76
Sint Maarten	85.37
Jarvis Island	83.94
Seychelles	83.31
Saba	81.89
New Zealand	81.78
Turks and Caicos Islands	81.62
Mayotte	81.45
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	81.12
Bonaire	80.36
Heard and McDonald Islands	80.28

The regions with index scores of 60 or less are:

region_name	Index
Bosnia and Herzegovina	59.98
Ukraine	59.90
Republique du Congo	59.78
Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	59.16
Haiti	59.11
Syria	58.49
Tristan da Cunha	57.63
Saint Helena	56.88
Israel	56.76
Falkland Islands	56.18
Eritrea	55.67
Libya	55.16
Democratic Republic of the Congo	54.23
Sudan	52.88
Liberia	51.90
Ivory Coast	49.14

Country scores across scenario year

Carpet plot figure (download as high resolution png) providing an overview of the scores from the 2021 assessment. Each row represents a region, the main groupings represent goals, and within each goal there are 7 years of data. Black regions indicate no data.

Don’t try too hard to interpret the results for specific countries/goals/years!!

This plot is good for providing a quick overview of:

• What is the range of scores?
• Which goals tend to have high scores across most regions (species, habitat)
• Which goals have a lot of variation across regions (tourism & recreation, lasting special places)
• Which goals are volatile across years (natural products, tourism & recreation)

Data

This interactive table describes the index and goal scores for the regions in 2021 (or, download csv version):

OHI Trends

Trend values are slope estimates from a linear model of scores for each region/goal over the past 9 years. Positive values indicate increasing scores during the past 9 years and negative values indicate decreasing scores.

A color-coded table of trend values for each country is available here (as well as a csv file).

NOTE: Currently, these data include the livelihoods and economies goal but these results should be viewed sceptically because these data were last updated for the 2013 assessment. Many other goals contain components with poor data resolution (i.e., infrequently, or never, measured over time).

Global summary

The following table provides the global scores (eez area weighted average of region scores) for the Index and goals/subgoals for all years.

Table View

goal	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Index	69.62	70.21	70.60	70.84	70.87	70.64	70.58	70.27	70.23	70.22
Artisanal opportunities	75.09	75.58	76.02	76.01	75.25	74.45	74.46	74.18	74.82	74.20
Species condition (subgoal)	79.59	79.29	78.99	78.69	78.40	78.10	77.80	77.51	77.22	77.20
Biodiversity	81.61	81.48	81.32	81.34	81.33	81.14	80.92	80.69	80.39	80.44
Habitat (subgoal)	83.63	83.67	83.66	83.98	84.27	84.18	84.04	83.87	83.57	83.68
Coastal protection	82.55	82.50	82.56	82.78	82.70	82.20	81.88	81.63	81.69	81.84
Carbon storage	77.79	77.79	77.78	77.79	77.80	77.80	77.80	77.82	77.82	77.80
Clean water	67.68	67.61	68.50	68.77	69.15	69.26	69.40	69.00	69.20	70.19
Fisheries (subgoal)	53.71	54.37	54.90	54.82	54.08	53.75	53.36	53.50	53.54	53.36
Food provision	50.59	51.07	51.40	51.13	50.48	50.20	49.88	49.87	49.81	49.69
Mariculture (subgoal)	5.52	5.43	5.44	5.49	5.62	5.75	5.87	5.97	6.07	6.23
Iconic species (subgoal)	63.70	64.57	64.64	65.06	64.31	64.18	65.14	62.52	60.33	60.22
Sense of place	59.98	60.37	60.85	61.21	61.24	62.05	63.07	62.13	60.91	60.96
Lasting special places (subgoal)	56.27	56.17	57.06	57.36	58.16	59.92	61.00	61.73	61.48	61.71
Natural products	76.43	76.41	77.73	78.42	78.33	77.61	76.36	75.34	75.99	75.21
Tourism & recreation	47.24	48.30	48.96	50.15	51.56	50.69	51.02	50.87	50.63	50.82

The following is a very preliminary analysis of how the global scores changed over time. Global index scores decreased by an average 0.02 points per year, with 107 regions having decreasing trends and 109 having increasing trends.

long_goal	average_change_per_year	p_value	num_rgns_pos_trend	num_rgns_neg_trend	mean_trend	sd_trend
Iconic species (subgoal)	-0.43	0.0207	33	186	-0.52	0.48
Species condition (subgoal)	-0.28	0.0000	11	209	-0.32	0.16
Natural products	-0.20	0.1279	71	119	-0.44	3.09
Artisanal opportunities	-0.17	0.0157	81	111	-0.05	1.34
Food provision	-0.17	0.0021	86	127	-0.07	0.67
Biodiversity	-0.14	0.0000	29	189	-0.16	0.29
Fisheries (subgoal)	-0.13	0.0397	70	143	-0.14	0.51
Coastal protection	-0.12	0.0028	23	16	-0.01	0.11
Carbon storage	0.00	0.0114	25	11	0.01	0.03
Habitat (subgoal)	0.01	0.8577	98	93	0.00	0.55
Index	0.02	0.6979	108	107	0.00	0.35
Livelihoods	0.04	0.1148	70	63	-0.02	0.56
Mariculture (subgoal)	0.09	0.0000	51	31	0.15	0.69
Sense of place	0.15	0.1308	79	141	0.09	1.07
Livelihoods & economies	0.21	0.1195	141	34	0.14	0.48
Clean water	0.23	0.0005	149	71	0.26	0.58
Tourism & recreation	0.36	0.0066	136	54	0.32	1.32
Economies	0.38	0.1197	134	15	0.30	0.64
Lasting special places (subgoal)	0.74	0.0000	70	32	0.71	2.13

Country summary

The global average decreased by an average of 0.02 points per year, but there was a good deal of variation in trend among regions and goals.

The following histogram describes the distribution of trend (e.g., change in score per year) in index scores:

The 10 regions with the largest increases in index scores are:

country	trend
Pitcairn	1.13
Norfolk Island	0.78
Jamaica	0.74
Tokelau	0.72
Tonga	0.66
Papua New Guinea	0.65
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	0.64
Cook Islands	0.63
Iceland	0.60
Indonesia	0.60

The 10 regions with the largest decreases in index scores are:

	country	trend
211	Crozet Islands	-0.57
212	Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	-0.59
213	Syria	-0.63
214	Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands of the United States	-0.64
215	South Africa	-0.69
216	Israel	-0.87
217	Falkland Islands	-1.04
218	Palau	-1.20
219	Panama	-1.30
220	Marshall Islands	-1.55

Country change in goal

A heat map describing change in trend for country and goals:

A closer look at goals

This section takes a closer look at the goal/subgoal scores.

Scores

Goal/subgoal scores for the 2021 scenario.

Artisanal opportunities

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Antigua and Barbuda	100.00
Wallis and Futuna	100.00
Djibouti	100.00
R_union	100.00
Costa Rica	100.00
Jordan	99.80
Kenya	99.48
Samoa	99.47
United Arab Emirates	99.23
Bahrain	98.46

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
191	Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	43.21
192	Tristan da Cunha	43.13
193	Norfolk Island	42.54
194	Maldives	41.17
195	Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	36.93
196	Palau	34.89
197	South Africa	34.40
198	Ukraine	32.80
199	Namibia	24.70
200	Georgia	24.64

Species condition

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Romania	88.70
Bulgaria	88.25
Ukraine	88.02
Northern Saint-Martin	87.75
Jordan	86.97
Djibouti	86.89
Sint Eustatius	86.75
Saba	86.14
Sint Maarten	85.49
Cambodia	85.42

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Greece	66.37
212	Syria	65.88
213	Italy	65.71
214	Israel	64.60
215	Algeria	63.52
216	Lebanon	63.15
217	Malta	62.33
218	Libya	60.85
219	Cyprus	60.32
220	Monaco	58.81

Habitat

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100.00
Aruba	100.00
French Polynesia	99.98
Clipperton Island	99.95
Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island	99.95
Saba	99.94
French Guiana	99.87
Wallis and Futuna	99.86
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	99.85
Norfolk Island	99.81

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Crozet Islands	63.68
212	Iceland	61.16
213	Ivory Coast	60.81
214	Gabon	60.66
215	Sint Eustatius	60.25
216	Andaman and Nicobar	58.40
217	Poland	57.74
218	Jan Mayen	56.75
219	Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	41.38
220	Bosnia and Herzegovina	36.52

Coastal protection

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100
Sint Maarten	100
Saba	100
Aruba	100
Sint Eustatius	100
Clipperton Island	100
Curacao	100
Wallis and Futuna	100
Sao Tome and Principe	100
Azores	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
198	Anguilla	57.03
199	Poland	56.38
200	Argentina	55.45
201	British Virgin Islands	55.23
202	Chile	51.66
203	Bermuda	51.18
204	Pakistan	45.36
205	Liberia	34.85
206	Ivory Coast	32.59
207	Democratic Republic of the Congo	30.07

Carbon storage

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Ile Europa	100
Sint Maarten	100
Saba	100
Turks and Caicos Islands	100
Mayotte	100
Aruba	100
Northern Saint-Martin	100
Sint Eustatius	100
Sao Tome and Principe	100
French Polynesia	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
171	Guernsey	61.88
172	Ukraine	61.88
173	El Salvador	59.82
174	Vietnam	58.64
175	Oman	52.25
176	Pakistan	45.31
177	Oecussi Ambeno	42.35
178	Liberia	34.82
179	Ivory Coast	32.59
180	Democratic Republic of the Congo	30.11

Clean waters

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Heard and McDonald Islands	99.25
Bouvet Island	99.25
Jarvis Island	99.23
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	98.54
Macquarie Island	97.67
Kerguelen Islands	97.31
Howland Island and Baker Island	96.77
Falkland Islands	96.60
Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	96.52
Palmyra Atoll	93.10

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	India	33.70
212	Ghana	33.37
213	Nigeria	33.20
214	Bangladesh	29.51
215	Marshall Islands	29.08
216	Cameroon	28.68
217	Togo	20.55
218	Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	18.90
219	Nauru	18.56
220	Benin	17.44

Fisheries

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100.00
Nauru	97.62
Ile Europa	93.74
Juan de Nova Island	93.74
Bassas da India	93.74
Palau	93.22
Turks and Caicos Islands	92.00
Estonia	90.58
Latvia	89.51
Howland Island and Baker Island	89.30

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Mauritania	13.03
212	Guinea	12.86
213	Bulgaria	12.70
214	Johnston Atoll	11.87
215	Western Sahara	11.14
216	Jan Mayen	10.61
217	Pitcairn	10.29
218	Norfolk Island	9.70
219	Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island	9.30
220	Bouvet Island	7.91

Mariculture

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Germany	93.51
Bosnia and Herzegovina	88.44
Finland	88.25
Denmark	87.59
Bulgaria	87.01
Netherlands	87.00
South Korea	86.58
Spain	85.71
Italy	85.13
China	84.73

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
185	Syria	0
186	Tristan da Cunha	0
187	Saint Helena	0
188	Falkland Islands	0
189	Eritrea	0
190	Libya	0
191	Democratic Republic of the Congo	0
192	Sudan	0
193	Liberia	0
194	Ivory Coast	0

Iconic species

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Finland	92.46
Estonia	91.85
Latvia	91.85
Lithuania	91.85
Poland	91.85
Sweden	85.93
Denmark	85.50
Germany	84.82
Bouvet Island	84.67
Romania	84.01

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Ile Europa	50.81
212	Juan de Nova Island	50.81
213	Kerguelen Islands	50.81
214	Bassas da India	50.81
215	Glorioso Islands	50.81
216	Ile Tromelin	50.81
217	Crozet Islands	50.81
218	Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island	50.81
219	Cambodia	49.90
220	Thailand	49.32

Lasting special places

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100
Howland Island and Baker Island	100
Ile Europa	100
Jarvis Island	100
Seychelles	100
Saba	100
Mayotte	100
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	100
Bonaire	100
Heard and McDonald Islands	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Nauru	0
212	Togo	0
213	Benin	0
214	Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	0
215	Syria	0
216	Tristan da Cunha	0
217	Saint Helena	0
218	Eritrea	0
219	Libya	0
220	Sudan	0

Natural products

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Jan Mayen	100.00
Faeroe Islands	99.98
Iceland	99.95
Georgia	99.89
Lithuania	99.73
Bulgaria	99.70
Estonia	99.69
Seychelles	99.67
Sweden	99.67
Ecuador	99.67

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
182	Panama	29.46
183	Palau	27.52
184	Nicaragua	26.62
185	Micronesia	25.31
186	Fiji	24.28
187	Israel	18.81
188	Singapore	14.69
189	Marshall Islands	9.26
190	Belize	5.19
191	Costa Rica	5.07

Tourism and recreation

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Sint Maarten	100
Seychelles	100
Saba	100
New Zealand	100
Bonaire	100
Aruba	100
Sint Eustatius	100
Cape Verde	100
Bahamas	100
Curacao	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
191	Ukraine	9.33
192	Republique du Congo	9.14
193	Nigeria	8.66
194	Sierra Leone	8.59
195	Libya	7.20
196	Gabon	5.50
197	Angola	5.11
198	Papua New Guinea	4.97
199	Yemen	4.09
200	Democratic Republic of the Congo	2.00

Trends

Annual change in goal/subgoal scores calculated using a linear regression on scores from 2012 to 2021.

Other analyses

Comparing trend and average index scores

To obtain a more complete picture of which regions are doing well and which are doing poorly we compared the average index scores (averaged over 2012 to 2021) and the trends for each region.

Of most concern are regions that have poor scores and declining trends.

The following is an interactive plot (region names are visible when hovering over the points) showing the relationship between average index scores and trend. The horizontal line represents the 0 trend and the vertical line is the average of the average index scores.

Comparing assessment years

The following is a comparison of the global status scores generated for the 2021 scenario by this year’s assessment vs. last year’s assessment.

If the models and source data remain the same, these scores should be exactly the same. Differences indicate changes in methods or source data.

These changes do not reflect changes in actual system health!

long_goal	future	pressures	resilience	score	status	trend
Artisanal opportunities	-2.7137000	-2.676546	2.167000	1.0364000	4.7859000	0.0085500
Biodiversity	-7.6697727	NaN	NaN	-4.2460455	-0.8223636	0.0006364
Carbon storage	1.2935616	-5.834452	2.949589	2.5500000	3.8065753	0.0359350
Clean water	2.2987273	-7.331955	1.787591	2.9257273	3.5525000	0.0364091
Coastal protection	-2.5866272	-4.692093	2.241861	-0.2559172	2.0763314	-0.0065772
Economies	-3.5706863	-2.461280	2.976864	-1.7852941	0.0000000	0.0000000
Fisheries (subgoal)	-5.8329545	-1.817409	3.041273	-3.0222727	-0.2118182	0.0171818
Food provision	-5.4138636	NaN	NaN	-2.7505000	-0.0870455	0.0001364
Habitat (subgoal)	-7.6850459	-4.232156	2.579358	-4.8489908	-2.0125688	0.0049074
Iconic species (subgoal)	-7.2922727	-7.429545	2.543091	-4.0311818	-0.7713182	-0.0023636
Index	-2.7298182	NA	NA	-0.2431364	NA	NA
Lasting special places (subgoal)	1.0401364	-6.046227	1.787909	1.8041364	2.5680909	0.0181818
Livelihoods	-2.6600980	-2.530758	5.155545	-1.3292647	0.0000000	0.0000000
Livelihoods & economies	-3.1150000	NaN	NaN	-1.5574510	-0.0001471	0.0006373
Mariculture (subgoal)	-1.3234197	-3.975500	5.901182	-1.0263731	-0.7292746	0.0021762
Natural products	-0.1364362	-1.976979	1.653750	3.7779255	7.6934574	-0.0254255
Sense of place	-3.1264091	NaN	NaN	-1.1135000	0.8988636	0.0083182
Species condition (subgoal)	-7.5456364	-1.713409	3.421682	-3.5890909	0.3670455	-0.0015455
Tourism & recreation	-3.3844500	-5.114091	1.787591	-1.8537000	-0.3228500	0.0003000

Country data

The following interactive plot provides an overview of how the 2021 scenario scores changed between the 2020 and 2021 assessments for all goals and dimensions.